Penn State departs the bye week at 3-4 on the season, and 0-4 in the Big Ten, with losses to Wisconsin, Northwestern, USC, and Michigan under its belt.
During that underwhelming start to conference play, we saw the team lose in several distinct fashions. First, there was the collapse against Wisconsin. Then there was the utter drubbing at the hands of Northwestern. Next came a shootout with USC where the team ran out of gas, and then there was the error-induced loss to Michigan.
Four losses, three of which came by one score, all in slightly different ways. As the Lions head to the back half of the season, with 5 games to go, what do you want to see from the team? I have a list.
1. Consistency
If there is one thing I can say about the Lions, it’s that they’ve been inconsistent. One week they’re losing a shootout, the next they’re in a defensive slugfest. Some of that has to do with their opponents, but a large part has to do with the team itself.
Quarterback Rocco Becht is a microcosm of this. One play he’s delivering a dart of a pass, the next he’s tossing up meatballs directly to defensive players or running out of bounds and taking a loss of yardage instead of just chucking the ball away.
On both sides of the ball, I want to see consistency. If they become consistent but still lose, at least I’ll know they settled in and that was who they truly were all along. But I’ve seen enough flashes of good things to make me think if they play to their potential, they may not be on the wrong end of a 4-game losing streak.
2. The Run Game
I mean this on both sides of the ball. I want Penn State to get better at the run game. The Lions’ tailbacks, for whatever reason, simply cannot get anything going on the ground. Whether that’s because individual players aren’t talented enough, because of the offensive line, or coaching choices keeping some players in instead of others, the Lions’ run game has been nothing short of atrocious.
Conversely, the Penn State run defense has been pretty much absent since at least the Northwestern game, if not even before then. The Lions beefed up on the interior DL, and I need to see more from the DTs. Quit getting pushed off the ball so easily. Command double teams. Shed blocks and get after the ball carrier.
Both sides of the ball have not done well in the run game, and in the Big Ten, that’s a recipe for disaster.
3. Quarterback Decisiveness
Penn State has been more-or-less in the hands of Rocco Becht, who has had as up-and-down a year as you could realistically have. As alluded to previously, some plays he looks fantastic, only to follow it up with a completely boneheaded move. He needs to improve, though with just 5 games left in his collegiate career, I doubt he will.
If he’s on the brink of costing the Lions another game, Matt Campbell needs to swallow a bitter pill and pull him. The Lions are fighting for bowl eligibility, and need to find 3 wins in their last 5 games. There’s not much margin for error there, and if yanking Rocco for a series, or a half, or permanently helps get them to that magical sixth win, so be it.
I’d personally much rather Becht return to his early season form and prove all of the haters wrong, as I do think he’s the best QB on the roster. But if he can’t, Campbell has to do what he’s paid to do, and make a tough decision for the sake of the team, instead of being blindly loyal to a subpar player.